New Version of Old Map

[- JO -]

Hello !

I've made 5 maps 1 or 2 years ago (on CC3), and I was OK with them...

That's until I found this Guild !!!!

All your fine work forced me to look again on my maps, and now I think they're too simple, or not beautiful enough...

So I want to draw them again, in an other style.

All of them are from the world of Nossym, a world created by my wife for her novels (unpublished)

The first one I want to improve is the area where the story of her second book takes place.

The first map looks like that :



And now, I've started to work on the new one, and all comments would be much appreciated...
For now, it looks like that :

[ThomasR]

Pretty good, I like the embossed coastline.

[Josiah VE]

Nice! I think the new version is going to be much better. Right now the colours seem a little strange to me, I'm not fond of the lime-ish green and orange around the coastline..
I'm not sure about the beveled coastline, I think it makes it look more top down while the mountains are obviously from an angle. Great linework on the mountains by the way.

[Weery]

Hi,

I like the land masses but would agree about the lime green and orange combination. If the orange is kind of signifying beaches it could be used more sparingly perhaps?

The mountains are nice and simple and sit into the map much more naturally than on the first version. Also, the river looks better but the colour jars with the sea and lake slightly.

Otherwise, there is some housekeeping to be done around the border but generally the map has started really well.

Good job. Looking forward to seeing more

[- JO -]

A long afternoon of work...

I get rid of the navlines for now, I want to do something coherent...
I draw a lot of hills... some mountains... a glacier and some rivers...
It takes time.. and I'm not going fast enough...
but here's the latest WIP :

[ThomasR]

The map's coming along nicely but I've got a little suggestion. Your glaciers are a wonderful feature of the map but I think you could make them go into the little side valleys, not far but a little bit, it could help break their regularity (not too much but a little bit).

And a personal preference, do not hesitate to draw your coastal waves yourself, it looks better. If you stick with the automatic ones, after expanding or shrinking your selection, smooth it 1 or 2 px before drawing the line, it makes it less angular.

Keep up the good work !

[- JO -]

Thanks for the ideas ! That's good ones !!!

Actually, the coast line were drawed (?) by hand... but you're right, they look too angular...

I'll see what I can do about that..

[ThomasR]

Actually, I wasn't talking about the coastline but about the coastal waves. Your coast is fine, angularity depends on the scale.

[Mouse]

EDIT: The mountains are lovely - I meant to say that, but got a bit distracted...

ORIGINAL:

If the sea is going to stay as grey as it is, you could go for a colour scheme that looks something a bit like Snodsy's The Five Seas map. There is actually quite a lot of orange and green in that one too, but Ooooh.... the colour is so delicious I could eat it! *sigh*

I think the secret is to tone it down a bit and try to add some variation. Just keep it subtle if your going to go for not-quite-opposite colours like that.

Having mentioned opposite colours you could go very subtle cool grey-blue to grey-orange, to make it a bit different? I have also just noticed the sea on The Five Seas map isn't really grey, but has a very slight tinge of bluish green(?) in it.

[Josiah VE]

Those mountains are wonderful! Looking forward to seeing it progress.